The Voice

​I remember when we used to answer the phone.  Back in that technological Eden, we had the device connected to walls and cords, so they could not chase us wherever we went.  When those phones rang, we answered, knowing that the voice on the other end brought us connection, conversation, and information that the caller knew we needed. Sin being what it is, ambitious marketers began calling when they knew we were home, during the dinner hour, and mostly, we learned not to answer as nobody we knew and loved would have the bad sense to interrupt sacred time.  The amoral nature of technology gave rise to answering machines, caller identification, and we learned how to unplug the phone, or turn off the ringer.  Over time, we learned that not every voice is friendly.
 
Enter the world of the mobile phone.  It used to be a luxury, and opportunity to move around and still connect.  The expense of the phone and the cost per minute tempered their use.  Now, of course, mobile devices are a necessity for participating in the world of the living.  Even in the poorest corners of Haiti, arguable the most destitute, corrupt, and dangerous nation in our hemisphere, if not the world, a place where 63% of the population lives on less than one dollar a day, and get this, 63% of their population has a cell phone.  That is more than one phone per household, showing that modern inconvenience is for everyone.
 
Being a clever lot, we have adapted to avoiding useless intrusions.  With incoming caller identification, we can avoid calls that come from places where we know no one, reject calls, and block pesky repeat callers.  As telemarketers and scammers have become wilier, our discernment and defenses are heightened.  Email has become so saturated with spam folder avoiding intrusions, that younger folks have quit using it altogether.  Uninvited voices now send texts through mined data extracted and processed from every bit and byte of information we consume.  A recent documentary we watched concluded that if we are not paying for it, we are the product and not the consumer.
 
All of this is a long way of saying that I do not answer calls from unknown sources.  If you call me, I identify your number, save it, and know it is you.  I expect that many of you do the same.  We were not designed to hold and process so much information or to feel all of the feels that others want us to feel for their gain.  Unfriendly voices can sound attractive at first, and that goes back to Homer’s Odyssey where sirens alluring songs that luring ships to wreckage and plunder.
 
It is now an important life skill to limit and filter the siren voices we hear, and this has a direct connection to the Word Jesus brings in this morning’s gospel.  Spinning a message for nefarious purposes is not a new thing.  Controlling the narrative was as important in the first century as it is now.  When Jesus challenges to the religious monolith of the day, he encourages the faithful to hang up on curated messaging that leverages political power and keeps the shekels flowing inward and not outward.  While the Church is slow to change, it has always provided fertile ground for manipulation, ego feeding, and positive cashflow.  Of our leaders are holier than us, invulnerable to questioning, or more focused on power than the poor in material or spirit, it might be good to block that voice.
 
Recent surveys reveal that when asked about their religious affiliation, Americans who check to box labeled “none” are rising at an exponential rate, especially among young men.  Many in the big “C” Church believe the sky is falling.  I do not.  I see this as the freedom from cultural strictures that brings more honesty to the table.  Every threat is an opportunity to refine our approach to living this love life.  If Jesus is to have a voice in our world, it might be good for us to listen for his voice.  And that may be easier said than done.
 
Aside from being Mother’s Day, (more on that at announcement time), today is known in the Church as Good Shepherd Sunday.  We harvest various and fertile messages that play on the metaphor of sheep, shepherds, and the ubiquitous love for babies.  Lambs are so innocent and cute looking.  Protecting them used to be important for sustenance.  If we are not as agrarian in our experience, we must know that shepherds are known for benevolence and caretaking qualities.  Their voice is the voice of safety and security, and any sheep that wants to survive and thrive knows that voice.  A voice is such a particular and unique thing, that it is hard to imitate.  When I say treat to our dogs, in that particular way, they come running.  It doesn’t work as well for the dog sitter.  Hers is a different voice.
 
And here is the obvious place where I tell you how to hear the voice of God, of Jesus the Good Shepherd of all of us, the Holy Spirit that moves like the wind, breathing well-being joy or peace or belonging into us, or like a raging fire that moves us to act and speak truth in love.  Here is where I might tie all of this up into a neat little pastoral package and keep The King of Love my Shepherd is resounding as an earworm tune, set on repeat in your brains.  And yet, I cannot.  Try as I may, Jesus voice is not my voice.  It is not yours either.  It is not to be crafted or contained in a message, text, email, podcast, book, or even, gasp, the Bible.  We are so painfully human, so necessarily defensive, and so conditioned by our own self-styled desires that Jesus voice gets garbled, or stuck in our inbox, waiting for a quieter space for us to hear it clearly.
 
How can we hear God’s voice?  I am not all that sure.  What I believe from experience is that I believe I know it when I hear it, but I cannot prove that.  What I believe from experience is that when I hear God’s voice, it doesn’t sound like my voice, but I cannot prove it.  What I believe from experience is that when I hear God’s voice, energy and hope and healing that does not come from me, washes through my being, but I cannot prove it.
 
I do know and can prove what God’s voice is not.  If is not a cacophony of messaging (notice the root of that is phony).  It is not about anger, entitlement, ego inflation, blaming, shaming, and name calling.  It is not about scarcity, fear, and revenge.  It is not about legalism, destruction, domination, material excess, and any form, fashion, or feed that leverages feelings that we are not worthy, beloved, beautiful, capable, and important.  I wish that we had a good scam filter for such cacophonies.  They are legion as we are vulnerable in our insecurity.  To hear Jesus’ voice, the good start is screening out and hanging up when we feel less than enough.
 
All I can say is that like those who describe jazz, great barbecue, moments of birth, bone crushing grief, and, even, a mama’s love, we know it when we taste and see - know our Good Shepherd’s voice in our knowing places - and move with the Spirit in a harmony we cannot make alone.  This why we come here, and seek other spaces for holy listening, to feel with God and for God, forgetting formulary thought and the burden of proof, to flow out of us and into God.  When Love’s voice speaks to that unutterable peace of our being, hang up on all the discordant clatter, and take that call.  Amen.